235 Stories Series: Jesus, Our Ever-Present Help in Trouble with Kent Heimer

235. Stories Series: Jesus, Our Ever-Present Help in Trouble with Kent Heimer

**Transcription Below**

Psalm 32:1 (KJV) "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."

Kent Heimer is a Jesus-follower and grateful recipient of God's love and forgiveness. He is happily married to Jan, father to three married adult children, and grandfather to 12. Professionally, Kent is the President at Heimer Construction Company in Taylor, Missouri.

Questions and Topics We Cover:

1. When you were 13, a significant event occurred. Will you share that story with us?

2. What did life look like, both before and after you put your faith in Jesus Christ?

3. Even after you became a Christ-follower, you still had troubles in this world. Will you pick up your story again?

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Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” 

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” 

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

**Transcription**

[00:00:00] <music>

Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. 

[00:00:17] <music>

Laura Dugger: Leman Property Management Company has the apartment you will be able to call home, with over 1,700 apartment units available in Central Illinois. Visit them today at Lemanproperties.com or connect with them on Facebook. 

Kent Heimer is my guest today, and he is a second cousin to my mom. They grew up near one another, and they even attended the same church. God has interwoven our families, and even to this day, Kent and his wife, Jan, remain dear friends of my parents. 

I first heard Kent's testimony as a teenager, and it has never left me. At that time, I was not yet walking with the Lord, but his story left an eternal impression on me. I am just humbled he is willing to share it again today. Here's our chat. [00:01:19] 

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Kent.

Kent Heimer: Laura, I am so humbled to be able to join you today. Laura, you talked about Savvy Sauce, I'd just like to share with you a little bit how I do life. 

I love Psalm 32:1, where it says, "Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." So as I do life, I am so thankful to be able that when people ask me how I'm doing, as a believer in Jesus, I am always blessed. 

Some days I'm happy, and some days I'm sad. So I never want to lie when I'm not doing well, and I don't want to tell somebody I'm doing okay, but I am safe to say that I am always blessed. [00:02:24] And it has opened the door to share the gospel so many times, countless times in my life when people say, "How are you blessed?" And they open that door, and I get to share with them Jesus.

Laura Dugger: And Kent, really, as long as I've known you, which I guess has actually been my entire life, that is so true every time I hear you respond that way. Our families go way back. And as you know, my dad is one of 10 children, and my mom is one of six. So I've always been fascinated by big families. You grew up in a large family. So will you tell us a bit about your upbringing?

Kent Heimer: Yes, I'd love to. I had the most wonderful parents, Laura. There was eight children in our family. There was three girls and five boys. [00:03:25] We were a typical family. Mom and dad loved Jesus, and that was their heart's desire, that their children would love Jesus also.

We didn't go to church every Wednesday night. We were raised on a farm, and with the busyness of farming, that didn't always work. But on Sundays, you could always find us at a small rural church there at Taylor called the Apostolic Christian Church.

Mom and Dad, as I said, were wonderful parents. They did go through some heartache and pain. I have an older sister, Linda, that only lived less than a month. She had spina bifida, so she went home to be with Jesus. I have never met her, but I certainly look forward to that time when we will be together forever and ever. [00:04:29] 

Like a lot of farm families, Mom and Dad went through some very difficult times, but it was encouraging for us kids to see their faith, even when they went through those difficult, difficult times.

I remember in 1959, we had a large barn there on our farm full of a lot of hogs and cattle and straw and hay and equipment, and that night that barn burnt. I'll never forget the faith that I've seen in my mom and dad as they went through that difficult time. Then in '61, they lost another. We lost our farrowing barn there on the farm to fire also. 

Then '64 to '66 was a rather difficult time for Mom and Dad. My dad had an accident there on the farm. [00:05:29] He was building a new fence, and it was raining, and he was setting a large corner post without the use of a tractor and a loader. He was trying to bear hug it and set it by hand and slipped on the wet dirt, and that post fell on him such that the next two years, he was in lots of pain and had two back surgeries. 

So it wasn't easy there on the farm for my mom and dad and with seven of us children then at that time living, but they always pointed us to Christ.

Laura Dugger: Kent, when you were 13 years old, a significant event took place. Will you share that with us now?

Kent Heimer: Yeah. It was May 13, 1966. [00:06:30] A good friend in school named Dean invited me to stay overnight with him and set some lines out in the river and fish for large catfish, and I caught the biggest fish I'd ever caught before. It was a five-pound blue cat, and I was so proud of that.

So the next morning, I couldn't wait to show up to my dad. So that next morning, May 14, 1966, was a Saturday, and Dean's mom took me home, and my mom told me that my dad and the hired man were down at the bottom of this big hill, and they were working down there and that I could go show that fish to them, but first I needed to go to the barn and help my Uncle Gerald load a load of straw. 

So all of us, my brothers, our seven kids, our ages at that time would have been... the youngest would have been six, and the oldest would have been 18. So the five of us boys were old enough to help load the straw. And then we loaded up in their truck, and I had a five-gallon bucket with that fish in it, and I couldn't wait to show my dad. [00:07:59] 

So we went down the hill. Our farmstead was up on kind of a large high hill. And went down to the bottom of the hill, and I was in the back of the truck with some of my brothers, and my oldest brother, who was 18, was driving the truck. 

As we got closer, I saw that they were resting. The man that was hired by my father to help him and my dad, it looked like they were resting, and I thought that was kind of peculiar. I hadn't seen my dad rest on the ground like that. 

Well, my dad and the hired hand were driving a sandpoint. A sandpoint is a perforated pipe that we had a lot of hogs, and because of disease, my dad would like to move the hogs around on the farm. And being only five miles from the Mississippi River and kind of a sandy subsoil, that water table would move, permeate, and move through the ground, and you could drive a perforated pipe about 25 foot into the ground, and you would just use a pulse tow driver to drive that in the ground, and then you could put a shallow well pump on it and get water for the livestock. [00:09:29] 

Well, it had rained the night before, and the ground was moist. It was a very humid day on that May 14th day. So my dad and the hired man were putting a section of pipe onto the sandpoint. They raised it up. My dad, I know he knew that close by was a real electric line running. I think he felt he was far enough away from it to hoist that section of pipe up, but that day, because of the conditions, that electricity arced over and hit the pipe that my dad and the hired man were holding, and both of those men were electrocuted when we got there.

As I look back at that later, God was really merciful because the pipe wasn't laying against the line and still touching my father or the hired man because some of us children then could have got electrocuted at that time also. [00:10:46] 

But it was an unbelievable sad day in the life of our family. We went up and told Mom, and she... I'll fast forward about an hour here, but she said she would not want to go down and look at the bodies. But she gathered the seven of us children in the living room, and she promised us that God would be with us and that God would help us through this very, very unfortunate event in our life.

Laura Dugger: Wow. And between both families, many children were left fatherless that day. Kent, your mom, Naomi, just has always had the best reputation. I know my mom has said that she was one of the sweetest women she ever knew. [00:11:53] Mom even said she considered her her second mom growing up. So that is remarkable that within an hour of that tragedy that she was still clinging to God's promises and teaching her children the same. But how did your sweet mom continue to support your family?

Kent Heimer: She was the most godly person that I've ever known. My dad didn't have any life insurance, so I would just like to say, please, if you're listening to this and you're a young couple out there, please have some term insurance, life insurance or something if a tragic event would happen in your life. 

But because of that, Mom worked two jobs at that point. [00:12:56] She would get us kids up, get us on the bus, and then close by was a motel, and she would go there and make beds, clean rooms, and then she went to the local high school where us kids went to school, and she was a cook there. So she would work before and after that noon hour, and it was her desire to get home in time to get us off of the bus and to be able to be with us. 

So Mom never complained. I never heard her once ever, ever, ever blame God or be angry for what had taken place. She one time told me that she was glad that she had a large family that would keep her busy, and so she was very, very busy. But she said that often the busyness would keep her mind off of what had taken place with our family there.[00:14:14] 

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Laura Dugger: Well, and even for each of you kids, you said the age range was approximately 6 to 18. [00:16:20] Do you remember how you all processed this, even emotionally or spiritually, at the time?

Kent Heimer: You know, I wish at that time... our church now has a counseling service, but I really wish that us kids and my mom could have had some kind of grief counseling. That tragedy was acted out in different ways by us children. I think each one of us processed it in such different ways. 

A lot of the younger children didn't want to go to school for a time. I don't know if they thought that they would come home and mom would be gone too. [00:17:20] I'm not sure what those little minds were thinking. 

You know, being 13 at the time, I was the oldest young man at home. I had one older brother, and he was a freshman in college, so he was gone. So it wasn't easy to kind of be the man of the house at 13 years old because we had lots of chores and a lot of work to do every day before school. And then after we'd get home from school, we had lots of chores and things to do outside, the things that dad and the hired man used to do. So it was a struggle. 

I'd have to say personally, I was angry at God also. The hired man had five little boys, and again, there was seven of us children. [00:18:25] So 13 years old, you're asking the question, why? I don't think that that's any different probably than anybody that goes through that situation at a young age would ask the question, why? 

And now, as I look back in the rearview mirror of life, I have learned that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and to them who are the called according to His purpose. But when you're going through it at the time, it is not easy. But I just praise God here today that I had a mother that didn't bail on us kids when the times got hard, but she trusted in God through this unfortunate situation. [00:19:25] 

Laura Dugger: Absolutely. I can't even imagine all of even just the intense work that you're talking about that's now shared among all of you. Were there any other memorable trials just in that unique environment, having a single mom now with a large family?

Kent Heimer: Well, things were tight. She always told us that... when Christmas came, it was a time that I dreaded because some of the kids in my Sunday school class would always be talking about the gifts that they had been given. And at home, you know, we weren't angry at Mom. We just knew that she told us that she couldn't do that, do the gift giving at Christmas time. [00:20:25] 

But Laura, I am here to tell you that that's why I encourage people to be a part of a church family. Get plugged in to a church family like my mother was. Some of the church, when you at least expect it, would be there at the door and have a gift for all of us children, one gift to share or sometimes a gift for each one of us so that we too might know... you know, the real joy of Christmas is Jesus and not gifts. But when you're young, gifts mean a lot. And so there was some at church that made sure almost every year that we too had a gift.

Laura Dugger: What a sweet church it is. That's the same one that my mom grew up in and where my grandparents were as well. [00:21:27] I didn't know that part of the story that that's one way that they came around you. So that's impactful. 

Were there any other memories that you have where God does promise He will be close to the brokenhearted? Were there times that you experienced that in your youth? Or is it more so as you look back?

Kent Heimer: That is a great question. Youth was just hard. It's hard for me right now. I mean, after I asked Jesus in my heart when I was 19, from then on, I could see more clearly. But up until that time, life was a blur. It was cloudy. It was, you know, what's going on? Why do some have so much and some so little? I've got some wonderful, wonderful memories but I got some memories that are not as good also, you know, during that time. [00:22:34] 

Laura Dugger: Absolutely. You had lived through so much trauma and not having a personal relationship with Jesus at the time. Even though your family was plugged into a church, it sounds like it wasn't a personal decision and surrender yet.

I love how you bring up that at 19 there was a change. So can you take us back to that time of life and share what it looked like for you before and after you put your faith in Jesus Christ?

Kent Heimer: I was one of the youngest kids in my high school class. So I was 18 when I went to my freshman year of college. And I went to a local junior college at the time. My mom asked if I would be willing to go closer to home so I could still help at home. And I did that. [00:23:36] 

And then my sophomore year, though, I found that some of the credits would not be able to be transferred. And I wanted to get a four-year degree in industrial education, industrial arts, to be able to teach that, after my dad passed away, and ultimately we had a dispersal sale and sold the livestock, so then mom encouraged us boys to get a job off the farm.

So I started working for a local contractor and building houses. I just loved seeing a stack of wood and at the end of the day, to see what you could do with a stack of wood, you could build the walls and set the trusses.

So I wanted to get a degree to teach if I ever got disabled in the construction world. But I thought I wanted to have a construction company was my goal. [00:24:39] So I went to Truman State University, which was about an hour and 15 minutes west of home.

It was up there that I did something my mother asked me not to do and I had to repent for that and tell her I was sorry. But I told her I was thinking about joining a social fraternity and she said, "What's that about?" And I only told her the good, didn't tell her the bad. 

It was during hell week of pledging a social fraternity there at college that I was not happy that one of the active members of the fraternity was picking on one of my pledge brothers. And I took offense to that. But anyway, through it all, he was a black belt and I got hit. I got hit hard and I got 30 some stitches alongside my nose and down, cut my lip through. [00:25:44] 

So they took me to the hospital and Laura, it was that night that I started waving the white flag of surrender. It was that night when I heard Him. The doctors, they had a nurse call Mom, and I still remember it was 2 or 3 a.m. in the morning and they said, "We have your son Kent here and we need to suture him up and we need your permission to do that. He's been in a sled riding accident." Well, that was a big lie. That's what the active members told the doctors had happened to me. I'd hit a tree sled riding.

So I was sitting there and they had my face covered up in just a slit where they were going to stitch me up. And what the doctor couldn't see, the tears were rolling. I knew I wasn't happy with where my life was at that time. [00:26:49] And because I had went to that Apostolic Christian Church all my life, when I was in college there at Kirksville, I didn't go home every weekend, but I went home some weekends and I did always worship with mom. But I knew enough to know that I was far from God and I needed Jesus.

So fast forward just to not long after that is when I let my mom know that I wanted to follow Jesus the rest of my life and I was sorry for my sin. I told Mom where I had erred and come short of the glory of God. And she was gracious as all mothers are and forgave me. Jesus has turned my world upside down, and I have never been the same since that day when I was 19 years old when I invited him into my heart. [00:27:59] 

Laura Dugger: That is such an incredible testimony. And I think of the many prayers of a mother and how we say whatever it takes, Lord, to bring them into your fold. 

Have you checked out our library of articles available at thesavvysauce.com? New posts are added multiple times a month related to parenting, intimacy and marriage, personal development, habits, and other topics connected to what we discuss here on The Savvy Sauce. 

If you sign up to join our email list, you're also going to enjoy little extras delivered straight to your inbox. Our hope is to encourage you to have your own practical chats for intentional living.

So these freebies will include things like questions that you can ask on your next date night, safe resources to read to promote enjoyment in your intimacy and marriage, or questions to ask your kids to connect at a more relational level. We hope you check out all the available reads at thesavvysauce.com under the Articles tab. [00:29:02] 

Even though life changed and you had this deep abiding peace now, God still tells us that in this life we will have troubles, but we can take heart He's overcome the world. But yet, even in your life, more loss was still ahead. So will you pick up your story again?

Kent Heimer: Yeah. I'm so thankful that God brought my wife, Jan. She was from our church in Roanoke, Illinois, into my life, into my heart. It was 1976 that we got married.

So I had the four-year degree and I had student-taught, but I really wanted to start a construction company. So the Monday after I graduated from college, I started our construction company with one employee. [00:30:02] And we were building houses and it was going good. 

And then the late 90s and the early 80s, anyone who lived through that time will remember the 16% and the 18% interest. Laura, my phone quit ringing. During that time, I had, I think, three other employees and I wasn't able to give them work because no one can build a house with 18% interest.

But I shared with my wife, we had one piece of equipment, we had a backhoe at the time and we had a house on some acreage, and I shared with her, Laura, that we might have to sell the backhoe first. And then if that didn't stop the bleeding, then maybe we'll sell our house that we were making monthly payments on. But I said, maybe we'll keep a little section of the ground and we'll put some kind of a modular home on that and we will weather the storm. [00:31:06] Because we didn't know at that time how long the high interest rates would be.

For any married couple out there, she said words to me that gave me so much hope. She said, "I could care less about the backhoe and I could care less about this house. All I want is you. So whatever we got to do, as long as I got you, we will be okay." 

So what that did, that gave me the confidence. It wasn't long after that I heard locally there that there was a commercial project going to be built. I found out how to possibly bid on that project. And the rest of the story is we bid on that project and we got it. 

So starting at that time, our construction company then started doing more industrial commercial type work. It seems like even with the high interest rates that big companies continue to do work and continue to build. [00:32:12] So it was such an incredible blessing to go from residential to the commercial building. And God really, really blessed us.

But I can't say enough about the faith that my wife had in me in making that decision. You know, if she would have slayed me with her tongue for buying the backhoe, or, you know, we shouldn't have taken the debt when we got the house and the acreage. But she didn't. She said, "As long as I got you, we will be okay." 

So we went along and we grew the construction company and we got up to, at that time, around 30 employees. But 1993 and '94, there was a six-month period there that was hard for us as a family. Jan and I are blessed with three children and they would have been like eight, nine, and ten or nine, ten, and eleven. They were close together. [00:33:22] But we was at church on a Wednesday night and we got a phone call to get home that our business was... Well, they actually said there was an old barn out away from the house. They said, "You got to get home. There's an old barn... Your barn's on fire." Well, when we got home, our business sat behind our house and it was in flames. And it was, I think, a five-alarm. There was five different fire departments. It was a major fire.

So it was difficult that we'd worked hard with our employees' help and it was going up in flames. It was, I think, 5 a.m. when the last, 4 or 5 a.m., the last fire department left. And it was toast. It burnt to the ground. 

I went in to go to bed, even though I know I wouldn't be able to sleep, and I pulled the covers down, and my son, he's the youngest of our three kids, had taken a piece of 8 1⁄2 by 11 paper and torn it. So it was torn and jagged. [00:34:41] But he made a cross and he laid it on my pillow. So when I pulled the covers back, there was a cross laying there that he had torn with his little hands and basically saying, "Dad, keep your eye on the cross." That was an incredible, incredible blessing that night. 

Just a few weeks after that, one of our employees had an accident with our crane. It's kind of hard to explain, but if anybody knows anything about cranes, if you want to reach higher, you fold around a jib, which is stored against the main boom. You put a pivot pin and you fold the jib around and you put another pin in to lock it in place, and you're able to lift higher at a higher elevation. 

An employee forgot to put the pivot pin in before he was going to pivot the boom around, and it fell on him and crushed his head. [00:35:41] So that employee was critically injured. I just praise God that his life was spared and he lives yet today. But, you know, that was hard with OSHA getting involved and the place where we work, very concerned about what had taken place. 

Then early in '94, it was 2 or 3 a.m. in the morning, and got a call from Florida where my mom was vacationing. And they said, "Is your mom named Naomi?" And I said, "Yes." And they said her last name, I said, "Yes." They said she's been in a real bad car wreck, that she's on life support and you children should try to get to Naples, Florida as quick as you can. 

So I called my siblings and it was a miracle that the airline worked with us and got us to Naples, Florida. [00:36:46] Unfortunately, my mom and... my mom remarried after being a widow for many, many years. So it had been my step aunt was in the backseat with her. So my stepfather was in the front. My step-uncle was beside him and then my mom was in the back with my step-aunt. 

And a semi-driver made a bad mistake that night. He wanted to turn around a semi. He had a car carrier behind him on a two-lane road, which is you don't do that. But he had tried to do that. And he got his tractor... when he was turning around down in the ditch and got stuck. So the trailer was perpendicular to the road and there was no marker lights on the side of the trailer. And so the car my mom was riding in went into the side of that car carrier, and through it, my mom and my step-aunt both went. They went home to be with Jesus.[00:38:00] 

Laura Dugger: Wow. So this is a time where your children are all approximately 10, 11, 12, you're in the midst of business struggles, and here, one of the other dear women in your life, your sweet mom, suddenly passed away.

Kent Heimer: Yeah, it was... You know, I've been in church leadership, Laura. So I've learned that if you get a call late at night, it's either real good or real bad. It's real good if somebody wants to give their heart to Jesus and wants to talk and counsel. And it's not good when there's tragedy, which often happens at night.

Yeah, that was... I'd like to give the testimony that I didn't handle that perfectly, and I'm sure none of us siblings did. [00:39:01] But when you know Jesus and been walking with Him and had seen how faithful He was through our fire, through the employee that got critically injured... I could give a testimony, a quick testimony right now.

I had tried to move our business away from behind our home for a few years. I tried to buy property and there was no one. I wanted to get out along US 24 and 61, the four-lane highway, and get property so we could become more visible with our construction company. And no one desired to sell land to me. 

Laura, it was... when the church family came together to help clean up the mess after the fire, one of the people at church said, "Kent, do you realize that this piece of land right down the road right along US 61 and 24 is going to be sold next Saturday at the courthouse steps in Palmyra?" And I said, "No, I didn't know that. And I thought to myself, "Wow, what a perfect location that would be." [00:40:17] 

I went to the local bank and told them my heart's desire and they set a limit per acre, what Jan and I could give for that land. And it was an incredible day when God blessed us with that land in that location. It sold just for a few dollars less per acre than the cap that the local bank had put on us. They didn't want to see us get overextended, which is good. But God had another plan. 

It wasn't until we went through the devastation of the loss that He could show us what He had in mind for our company. And our company is still there yet today. And it's thousands of cars go by that location every day. [00:41:15] 

When I got that location, I was so thankful to God. I made a promise to Him that as long as I could, that a few weeks before Easter and a few weeks after Easter, I would put up three big wooden crosses. Because I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ as we read in Romans 1:16, for it is a power of God and to salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

Have we probably lost work because we put out the crosses every year? Probably, but I don't care. God has blessed us. We've always had abundance of opportunity and work for our company. 

So, yes, my mom's death. Miss her sorely still today. Her and my stepfather, Rod, we're going to drive home the next day from Florida. [00:42:19] They had been down there for an extended time through the winter.

And before the wreck, she had put in the mail a card to Jan and myself and said, "Tomorrow we're coming home and can't wait to see you all." So after the accident, about the same time as the actual, I think it was a little before the funeral, we got the card from mom saying, "I'm coming home." But mom went, you know... some people call it heaven. I think there's a Southern gospel song out there. But Laura, you and I call it home.

Laura Dugger: Amen. Kent, you have experienced tragedy after tragedy, and yet through all of these stories, it's so clear you love to share the good news of Jesus. [00:43:21] And you do that with everyone you encounter. That joy is something that can only come from the Lord. So is there anything else that you'd like to share with all of us? If someone's going through their own grief right now, what encouragement would you have for them to help cope with overwhelming grief?

Kent Heimer: My encouragement to them is even when you can't see exactly what God is doing, continue to trust God. On Jan and mine's license plates here in Missouri, we got Proverbs 3:6...  no, 3:5 and 6 is well known to many of you. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths."

My encouragement is when you are going through those very, very difficult times, even when you cannot trace the path that God is having you on at the time, even when you can't trace God, trust God. [00:44:31] I can say without a shadow of a doubt that now as I look in the rearview mirror of my life, you know, at the time I couldn't see how all things work together for good. But with some spiritual maturity and walking with Jesus day by day for many, many years, I can give that testimony that all things work together for good. 

So when you cannot trace God and you're going through something very, very difficult, continue to trust Him until you understand the rest of the story.

Laura Dugger: Wow. You have quite the perspective to draw from. And I agree completely wholeheartedly with your conclusion. And yet there's so much of your life that we won't have time to cover. But will you catch us up to speed with what you and Jan are up to these days? [00:45:35] 

Kent Heimer: Oh, I'd love to do that. Jan and I have three believing children. They're spouses. Each of them are married. They're spouses. Believe. Jan and I are so blessed that we have 12 grandchildren, 10 of them boys, two girls. We don't seem worthy, but our children honor us. In Ephesians 6, "Children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise." 

We're not perfect parents. We don't have nail prints in our hands, and we've made a lot of mistakes in life. If you're a parent out there like us, be quick to say the words, "I'm sorry," or "I forgive you." After what Jesus has done for us, keep those lines of communication open with your children and your grandchildren. 

Jan and I are humbled. We've been blessed with a cabin, and it's big enough to house all of us. [00:46:41] In December, we send a calendar out to our three children and their spouses, and we pick one weekend a month, every month. So 12 months are presented to our children for family weekends. 

This coming weekend is family weekend. So Jan and I are so excited to host our children on Friday. They come in. And everyone helps with meals. One of the girls will do the Friday evening meal, and Jan always does the two breakfasts, Saturday morning and Sunday morning breakfast. One of the other girls will take the Saturday noon meal, and one of the other ones will take the Saturday evening meal. But we gather together. 

We have a devotion sometime during that weekend. We celebrate birthdays. We celebrate life. We are so, so blessed that they honor us in that way, and we come together. [00:47:46] So we spend that time together, and then we all go half hour away to our church, and we worship together. Then we come back to the cabin, and we have leftovers from the two days prior, and we just have sweet, sweet fellowship.

So Jan and I feel we are most blessed by our children, by our grandchildren, and thankful that Jan and mine's health has been so good. We are so blessed, Laura. 

The main thing that we want now, Jan and I, we don't do it perfectly, but we pray for name by our grandchildren, that they too all, in time, will make that decision and wave that white flag and ask Jesus into their heart.

Laura Dugger: You are so faithful in that. I remember when you were faithfully praying that for your own children, and I know you've prayed that for your relatives' children, myself included. [00:48:53] I just remember not even being a believer yet, but being in Sunday school in high school and you came to visit our little church in Roanoke, and you shared your testimony. And God definitely used that to soften my heart toward Him in that day. 

And I pray the same is true of you being willing to share your testimony with all of us today. And what a beautiful spot to come to with that verse that's in the New Testament about, "I have no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in truth." And I know we all pray that for one another today. 

But Kent, you may already know our podcast is called The Savvy Sauce, because "savvy" means practical knowledge or discernment. And so as my final question for you today, what is your savvy sauce? [00:49:51] 

Kent Heimer: You know, my savvy sauce might take just a few minutes here, but when my dad was taken, like I said, when I was 13. I had nothing from my dad. I knew he loved me, but I had nothing that I could put my hands on when the tears would come. 

So one Sunday morning, I was at the cabin, and I was too ill to go to church, and I just reached over my wife's nightstand to see what books were there. And there was one that was called Letters From Dad. And it was a short read, I don't know, 80 to 100 pages. So I read that, lay in there, and I wept most of the way through, wishing this writer also, like myself, had nothing from his father. So I wept with him. 

I made a vow and a promise. And so I went to a local man that does great woodworking in our community, and he made me these little walnut boxes, Laura, really nice with dovetail joints and green felt inside. [00:51:03] And I etched a Bible verse on them about my love, a different verse for my children than my grandchildren. So I had 20 some of these made, not knowing how many grandchildren we'd be blessed with.

I take time, and when the Holy Spirit works in my heart, I sat down and I'll pen a letter to my grandchildren. So each of the grandchildren have letters in their walnut box from Grandpa. I want them to know that if God calls me home, that Grandpa loved them. And I put in the letter that, you know, my greatest desire is to be able to be with them forever and ever in heaven. 

So I don't know if there's somebody out there, and you're like me and you have nothing, maybe from your dad that showed in a letter form that he loved you. I can tell you my children... I just thank the Holy Spirit. They allowed me to read that book that day and change my life. And my children will know that inside that little walnut box is something to show them when I am gone of the love and the prayers that I had for them. So take time. [00:52:42] 

Laura Dugger: Wow, that is quite the legacy. What an amazing idea. It seems very inspired by the Holy Spirit. I love hearing how you followed through. I think that's a wonderful challenge to each of us. Kent, I am just beyond grateful for your willingness to testify about God's work in your life and His protective care of all of His children, even when we go through really hard things. You are a light in this world, and I just want to say thank you for being my guest.

Kent Heimer: Thank you, Laura, for the opportunity. And I pray that I didn't steal God's glory today, but I want Jesus to be high and lifted up. So thanks again for allowing me to be a part.

Laura Dugger: Truly my pleasure. 

One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. [00:53:44] But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves.

This means there is absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a Savior.

But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news.

Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. [00:54:49] 

Romans 10.9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him. You get the opportunity to live your life for Him. And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you ready to get started? 

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and let me choose my own Bible. [00:55:51] I selected the Quest NIV Bible, and I love it. You can start by reading the Book of John. 

Also, get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps, such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. 

We want to celebrate with you too, so feel free to leave a comment for us here if you did make a decision to follow Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process. 

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today. 

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.